Current Affairs

Even if the last post that I wrote was about Morales, I think he deserves another one. looks like he is not only accusing Spain of breaking aid promise and nationalising the oil and gas sectors but now he is also going to review the contract with the Spanish firms AENA and Abertis, united in SABSA, which is in charge of the management of Bolivian airports (link in Spanish). The workers of the firm has denounced it because, apparently, it has not done the investments at first it promised.

Even if I really do not know if they have really made the investments or not, it is somewhat similar to the nationalization of oil companies. The last news are that Morales has said Bolivia was not going to pay anything also to BBVA, who was obliged to turn over the shares in Andina (background). According to EL MUNDO, he said

“there is nothing to compensate, we are not nationalising, we are just recovering what belongs to Bolivian people”

Hmm, yes of course. Now, just a bit a reasoning: if you take something without the will of his proprietor and without paying him/her its price, how on earth that action should be named? Exactly: STEALING.

But the link goes on:

Solbes [Second Vicepresident and Economy Minister] has said in Spanish Cadena Ser [left-wing] that “taking goods from someone without compensation is utterly unnaceptable. But if they are only deprivin them of the management, then we will see what is the compensation. In any case, we have to study it very carefully”.

I totally agree with Sandmonkey:

Nationalization doesn’t help Faisal, and capitalism isn’t the problem. It’s a difference in approach. Trust me when I tell you that capitalists don’t want poor people in the world, because the more people with money there is the more goods they buy and more money they make. It’s just how we see things. For example, socialists see that a good way to help poor people is to give them welfare. Capitalists disagree, because welfare doesn’t really improve the person’s life, it just helps make it more tolerable. Capitalists for example champion micro-banking and micro-financing: Lend the people money to start their own businesses and not need your charity to live. We want the people to live with dignity, and welfare checks from the government is anything but dignified, and the door is always open for its abuse. Look at China: Capitalism helped move 300 million chinese from the poverty they lived under during the days of communism. When has socialism ever done that?

It is very interesting that even Alejandro Toledo, Peruvian President, and also an Indian reasons against the nationalization:

“If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not
going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income, there is nothing to invest more in nutrition, health and education, which are the most powerful weapons for reducing poverty,” the Peruvian president said.

Hmm, can you please tell all this to our President Mr. Zapatero? I’m sure he hasn´t know it yet…

So, in Spain, people are claiming for yet another boicot (Catalans are boycotting Castillian products and viceversa) against Morales.

Lastly, Barcepundit has written also about this. He reproduces a Fake photo of Morales and Spanish FM Moratinos (right). He has seen this image in Spanish Blog Zapaterías Rimadas, whose author writes the news in poetry.

In fact this image is very appropriate because looks like Spanish Administration is divided over Bolivian nationalisation: while Solbes does not agree with it and says it does not sound good:

foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, “It’s just a change in the management of the titles.” Bolivian president Evo Morales answered Solbes, “There’s nothing to indemnify. We’re not expropriating anybody.”

I think however that the image is not correct: Morales is not punching on Moratino’s nose, but on the one of the workers and shareholders of these frims… and his own people, because of the lack of credibility, his country is going to have in the future.

But this is not all: According to Spanish blog Zetapolleces, Bolivia will also nationalize all the improductive large states. I do really believe that nationalising is not the solution at all. Firstly, they would have to examine WHY these states are improductive and provide a solution. And I expect that the proprietors are given some money in return….

You can read also DOCE DOCE comments, in which he remarks that the Leftists European MPs applauded Evo when after he said he was not going to compensate the firms. Hmm, what a wonderful world…

Tags: BBVA, Bolivia, European Union, Evo Morales, PSOE, Repsol, Spain, Zapatero

Spain Herald:

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Bolivian president Evo Morales met on Friday for about 45 minutes in Vienna at the EU-Latin American summit there. Zapatero said the meeting had been “positive, sincere, and clarifying,” but did not mention any advantage over the agreement previously negotiated by a Spanish delegation in La Paz.

He did announce that Morales had sent an official letter praising Spain’s cooperation, in contradiction of the harsh accusations Morales had launched last Thursday. Morales’s letter said that he had never accused Spain of not fulfilling its commitments to Bolivia, but instead expressed hope that aid to development and debt forgiveness “would soon be a reality.” Meanwhile, PP leader Mariano Rajoy demanded that Zapatero defend Spanish interests in Bolivia and that Morales obey the law and international agreements.

And so he is putting into effect the cooperation: Spain Herald

Bolivian president Evo Morales said yesterday that his nationalization of Bolivian fossil fuel resources “does not expel or expropriate anyone,” to the applause of the Euro-MPs. Meanwhile, the Bolivian government announced that Spanish bank BBVA must turn over the shares in Andina, Repsol’s Bolivian subsidiary, that it manages through a pension fund, within three days.

“These pension funds will be closed down in three days if they do not obey the decree. That’s it,” said Bolivian vice president Alvaro García Linera, who signed a further decree allowing Bolivia to “take absolute control” over the fuels industry.

BBVA and Zurich Financial Service have managed two Bolivian pension funds since 1997. They were created with the government’s shares resulting from the partial privatization of Bolivian state companies in strategic sectors carried out during the 1990s, which attracted a great number of foreign investors.

Just a few minutes previously, Morales told the European Parliament, “Any company that invests in my country has the right to recover its investment and make a profit, but not to have control. They will be partners, not the owners of our natural resources.” He added, “Without social security, there can be no legal security.”

EL MUNDO reports:

they will have to hand to Bolivian state the shares they are managinig in the oil companies Andina (48%), which belongs to Spanish-Argentinian Repsol YPF; Transredes (34%), from the US Enron and the Dutch Shell, and Chaco (48%), from British Petroleum. These companies were created with the division of the State Company Bolivian Fiscal Oil fields (or Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos), which will recover control over them. They represent (approx.) 700 of the $1,600 million which this fund has.

Tags: BBVA, Bolivia, British Petroleum, Enron, European Union, Evo Morales, Shell, Spain, Zapatero, Zurish Financial Services